calm the storm
by Sayonara Solitaire
Summary: AU. ONESHOT. Because she gave him her umbrella. SASUSAKU. — For Iz.


**one**shot.  
_+ standard disclaimer applied.  
_

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**c**** a**** l m t**** h e **s t o r m_  
even the smallest amount of affection could bloom through one inevitable encounter._

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**i.** Dedicated to ANGELforSHOW.  
**ii. **Happy Sweet Sixteen Iz! (:  
**iii. **Song Used: All Or Nothing by Theory Of A Deadman.  
**iv. **Much Love, _Kat_.

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Uchiha Sasuke was always an angry man.

Born angry, lived angry.

So this time wasn't an exception.

His company was failing; if it wasn't bad enough that said company was a branch off of Itachi's company.

He really, really _hated_ Itachi.

(And or slash brother bonded by blood.)

Itachi was the source to all his anger.

Who could've blamed him?

It was all in the Uchiha genes. Males of the Uchiha surname all but could only function through three emotions: Anger, Anger-er and envy.

It wasn't like he had an _inferiority_ complex or anything. Oh no, it's just that he hated getting defeated by his older brother. Yes, it was as simple as that.

He wasn't a bad loser; Sasuke accepts his defeats like a man. He just _oh-so-happens_ to express his feedback toward said defeats with a bit of kicking, punching, bashing and a bit of rated-R swearing along with these teeny, _weeny_ I-must-destroy-the-pretty-things-within-my-reach rampages. Otherwise, he keeps his emotions in check. Hey, sometimes people _actually_ think he was emotionally constipated.

So _what _if he never displays any traits of love, care and happiness?

It didn't mean those clueless remarks never hurt his feelings.

Okay, it _didn't _but let's not worry about the small technicalities.

The comments though from his equally emotionally constipated father did, (dare he say?) _did_ hurt…just a _tad_.

On the other hand, the cruel words drove him forward.

And now he's at his finish line.

It's over, completely over.

He got defeated.

He couldn't get back up anymore.

He was _tired._

So here he was… standing at the edge, sulking in the rain on a chilling November day at an uncivilized beach.

A cold; mind numbing autumn-soon-to-be winter wind breezed by, causing goose bumps to rise onto the chapped surfaces of his alabaster skin.

He slightly shivered.

The pounding raindrops pelted down on him like sharpened needles.

Cloudy puffs of white mists escaped his dried lips. He licked them, hoping it would help a bit.

It didn't.

But despite the antagonizing weather, and the out-of-place feeling, he still felt at peace. Tranquility he never tasted…in estimated all his years since childhood.

Sasuke caught a swift glimpse of his own distorted reflection upon the rippled tides. _Twisted_ and _foreign_, were the only words he could think of when his imploring obsidian abyss fell straight onto his mirrored-self.

He was drenched with rainwater from head to toe. His midnight-black hair drooped with the weight that hung against the uneven locks, inhuman alabaster skin, with a tint of highlighted pink due to the cold as accompaniment, and lips contorted into a grim line for effect.

Naruto (Alias: His best – _he'll forever deny it in public_ – best friend and or slash Dobe, Moron Version #92983792835029) was right. Sasuke was so hell-bent on revenge; everything else was erased from his mind. He never got a chance to realize what he had become.

God, did _that _sound like an epic sob story or what?

He was a bit ticked.

Sasuke's white collared-shirt was drenched so much; the water caused the clothing article to be seen through. The plain, black Levi's he wore were dirtied with sand.

* * *

_When I first saw you standing there,  
You know it was a little hard not to stare. _

* * *

As he moped, locks of pink tresses fluttered by his peripheral vision.

The 24 year old lifted his droplets-laced eyelashes to stare.

A woman.

The woman stood about fifteen feet estimated across from him.

Barefoot.

In nothing but a sophisticated, emerald-green sundress.

Still raining.

In _November, _almost December_._

Yeah, that's totally normal.

Long, wavy rose-petal tendrils flew in the wind, complimented by beautifully striking viridian orbs with a supposedly flawless visage to match, she was… nice looking?

He snorted out loud, amused that the thought ever crossed his mind and looked away, uninterested.

What made him turned back was the splashes and gentle laughter emitted from the young woman.

* * *

_We got our backs against the ocean,  
It's just us against the world. _

* * *

He squinted just about the right amount at her lithe form, she wasn't _that_ nice-looking. Her lips were a bit too full with no proportions, her skin is tanned in all the wrong blends, she's most likely a B-cup, he assumed she was anorexic and her forehead was too wide for comfort…like a billboard.

But most importantly, she was slightly insane.

Why?

The woman brushed her foot across the more-than-calm surfaces of the ocean. Testing the temperature as it softly danced beneath her ankles.

He saw her winced; the feelings of the waters were knife-cuttingly cold. She instead, buried her own two feet into the sprinkles of sand; she wiggled them a bit before…a refreshed sigh flew out her lips.

The young woman lifted her flushed cheeks upwards. Crystal clear, viridian orbs saw. The sky was nothing but a pure stroke of gray.

After, she was sprinting into the awakened waves, back and forth…back and forth, like a child's first day at an amusement park.

This went on for at least half an hour…

He thought she was a bit loose in the head. He was being hypocritical though, because he never took his eyes off of her.

He couldn't help it. She was filled with innocence, pure innocence, happy _joy_, and this _creepy_, halcyon aura, a completely opposite contrast of him.

He was annoyed but entranced all the same.

On second thought, he could walk up to her and say, "The power of holy water _compels_ you!" But that would've made him out of character than usual wouldn't it?

"Sakura!"

Pink and blue whipped in the direction of the voice.

Before his eyes appeared a shining silver Volvo, it did not belong in the same picture, a nature at its worse background, and pelted by angry rainwater.

The driver emerged with a generic-blue umbrella, giving colour to its gray, black and white wearing owner.

Shades of gray with tints of silver, gravity defying spikes, styled with bangs curtaining down his left eye. His mouth and tips of his nose hid behind his black turtleneck, Sasuke assumed it was to shield himself from the weather onslaught.

"Kakashi." He heard her acknowledged, her tone welcoming.

Sasuke surveyed as Kakashi stepped toward her, and slid the umbrella over to create a barrier between them and the rain.

Dull charcoal met radiant green.

Fragile silence.

A mutual understanding.

"Let's go home." Kakashi's voice was nothing but a quiet lull.

Sasuke saw her nodded.

He watched lazily as the couple went inside the vehicle, he listened as the engine roared, he saw as the aforementioned vehicle sped back into the city.

And he was back to moping.

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_So nervous when he drove you home,  
I know being apart is a little hard to bare. _

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**x**

**x**

Sasuke stood at the city square, plowed by rain once more.

How long has it been raining?

He did not know. Nor did he care.

But it was soaking his socks, making them wet.

_That's_ where he drew the line.

He didn't care about his hair, his white shirt, his long black blazer-coat nor his black pants or his black business shoes but _his_ socks. Bloody hell, he detests the rain but he detested the sun all the same, he hates the world, he hates everything.

Hate, Hate, _HATE._

One might think he's overreacting but have you _tried_ walking around in wet socks? It's _disgusting._

Sasuke brooded as he leaned against the clock tower. It was a quarter to three.

Naruto was late. The blonde was supposed to meet him here an hour ago. They had papers to settle. Contrary to popular believe; Naruto was his company lawyer. How said lawyer got his license, will forever, and _ever_ be a phenomenon to the brooding male.

Sasuke made a lifetime promise to himself to choke the blonde to death with his favourite tomatoes.

He pondered on what to do next, his analytical eyes giving the space around him a swift skim.

_("You seem… _happier _these days." Sasuke ignored him. "Or... at least emitting less anger than usual." Itachi added.)_

The young man could spot the many sidewalk pedestrians as they glided pass him, multi-coloured umbrellas in hand; red, green, blue, yellow… as their splashing footsteps entered nearby shops.

_(Sasuke turned around entirely to face his beloved, _beloved _brother, "Get bent.")_

He ignored the female oogling and lifted his head up and stared at the clock.

_("I don't hate you, you know…" Itachi offered, sighing. "You're such a girl, get over it will you?")_

Lazily, his eyes darted onto the molecule-like droplets, onyx tracing as they dripped down the glass surface. One by one…leaving a slippery trail in its wake.

_("Don't wanna.")_

The image of green. Those vibrant, _green_ irises were imprinted on his mind, drowning him whole. Pink and green, never leaving him alone.

* * *

_Send some flowers to your work in hopes,  
That I'd have you in my arms again. _

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Sasuke didn't know what it was about her…that drew him in.

Perhaps it was attraction. Yes, it was _definitely_ attraction.

One look upon her figure made him want to touch her, to thread his fingers through those soft tresses, her in his hold, forever…and ever.

It was official.

Sasuke lost his mind.

Suddenly, hot pink obscured his vision and he realized someone was holding an umbrella over him.

Naruto _did not_ own a hot pink umbrella… if he knew his best friend, it would've been that _obnoxious_ shade of orange; thus he bothered to look this time, at the petite, live, human, _breathing_ creature mere centimeters proximity from him.

* * *

_We kissed that night before I left.  
Still now, that's something I could never forget. _

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It was déjà vu.

Except _it_ slipped.

Pink strands of hair flew, her long snow-white winter coat flapped after her along with her knitted scarf, the umbrella still in her hold, the violence being that it smacked him in the face as she slid over the rainwater.

He clutched his pained nose, an eyebrow rose as he observed the young woman as she got right back up on her feet, wiped her lap here and there before clutching her umbrella and held it over his head once more.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke took his hold off his nose as a mask of annoyance plastered onto his visage.

He was staring straight into the face of the same woman from two weeks ago, the one that was prancing at the beach in the rain. Whom he concluded was an escaped patient from the local mental asylum.

"I fell for you." She responded, a grin shining through sparkling white pearls.

He stared, amused eyes twinkled before he snorted and walked away.

In a flash, she immediately pattered after him.

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_You've got all that I need.  
Looking at all or nothing_,_ it's just you and I._

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"Hey! Wait up!"

Surprisingly, he halted.

The woman almost rammed right into him.

She once again held the umbrella over him and her. "You'll catch a cold in this weather." The pinknette muttered.

He glanced down at her.

It was then that he realized he was a whole head taller than her.

"And this is your business why?"

"I'll do this for anyone." She replied, a bit too hurried.

He didn't believe her…but eventually, _unconsciously_, his lips, known for being those "Beautiful, gorgeous, succulent, _kissable_ lips…" evolved into a smirk. A smirk so arrogant and conceited, a smirk so _dazzling_ and secretive, it made females swoon and melt like a marshmallow.

Sasuke heard her breath hitched.

"You don't know me."

"And you don't know me." She bluntly replied.

Silence.

"What's... your name?"

"…S-Sakura."

He saw as her eyes watched, a slender, calloused finger of his lifted… and brushed a strand of pink behind her ear.

"It suits." He commented, face impassive.

She unwillingly blushed and angled her head elsewhere.

"You're not doing a very good job sheltering me." Sasuke pointed out.

Sakura saw that her umbrella was tilted more dominantly in her direction and sputtered, "S-Since when did I say there are guarantees?"

He laughed brokenly, uncharacteristically; it was as if he hadn't done the display of emotion in decades.

It was true.

"Heh. Queer."

"_Hmph!_"

"…"

"A-And…yours?" She stammered, staring down at her boots.

"…"

Sakura peered up, pink strands bounced with her action upon no given answer.

She could've stopped breathing altogether for all she knew.

That delicious smirk, that _arrogant_ pose; his chin was held up high as said smoldering eyes and face of perfection drilled her down, like she was a lesser being.

"…Sasuke." He breathed.

* * *

_With you I know that I am good for something,  
So let's go give it a try._

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Sakura flushed, so red, so deep, it was burning, burning—despite the cold, cold weather.

"I-I…" She stuttered.

"Aren't you taken?" He asked, the flash of gray, black and white fleeted across his mind.

Sakura blinked, tipped her cute little pink head over at him in confusion, before a sly grin made its way onto her lips. "Yeah. But feel free to prove me wrong." Her grin was so wide; it could've split her face in two.

"Hn."

It was then that her expression evolved into one of stupefaction, her lips contorted and indicated the surprise that the above dialogue actually escaped through her lips.

Their visions aligned, they held each other's gaze, how long they did not know...if only, _if only_ they could stay like that...

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_This is it, nothing to hide.  
One more kiss never say goodbye. _

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_("Still loathe me Sasu-_chan_?")_

"A-Anyways…" The pink-haired sputtered dramatically, as she ran fingers through her hair.

_("What's your relation to that blue-skinned guy from the fish market?")_

"H-Here...!" She shoved the umbrella into his palms before she bolted away; arms stretched over her head, as she blazed through the storm.

_(__"…")_

The pink that powdered her cheeks never dissipated.

_("...")_

Sasuke held onto the hot pink umbrella blankly, ignoring the odd glances the passing citizens gave him.

_(_"_Please don't tell mom.")_

He turned around, bangs hung over his eyes, expression unknown, his lips... eventually curved into a wry smile.

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**Author's Note:**

I HAD 6 DRAFTS. _SIX._ DRAFTS, WITH PLOTS GOING IN SIX DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS. They were created in the time span of 5 days. There was the whole angst/tragedy thing and all these other junk that didn't make any sense that I've planned, more than 5000 words. It eventually confused me thus stemmed _this _pointless thing. Man, writing is hard.

Sorry Iz, _really_. I've wasted a portion of your life. D:


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